Obituary of Stuart Daw

Stuart Daw, 81 of Seminole Florida died peacefully on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at Woodside Hospice Center. Stuart fought a 5 month battle with Astrocytoma, a primary brain cancer. He was born on June 25th, 1928 In his words…"Section 10, Township 24, Range 15, West of the Third Meridian, Head first, facing south, Saskatchewan." He was the son of Charles and Ruth Daw and brother to Muriel, Freddeceased, Ruth, Isobel and Mary Louise deceased Stuart grew up on a prairie farm in Saskatchewan. He moved to Ontario as a teenager and after leaving the farm he worked in a Foundry before entering what would become his life's passion, the coffee business on April Fool's Day, 1950. He always enjoyed the symbolism of that date as the coffee business was by some deemed to be a business only a fool could love. His first job in the coffee business was as a coffee salesman working for H.G. Farley at a commission rate of one penny per pound calling on restaurants in the Toronto area. In 1962 he founded his first company, "Stuart's Branded Coffee." During his 60 years in the coffee business Stuart had ownership involvement in over 100 companies and would help to pioneer the Office Coffee, Honor Snack and Specialty coffee segments of the Industry. Companies of note founded by Stuart include, Goodhost Foods, Red Carpet Coffee Service, Nationwide Gourmets and The Heritage Coffee Company. Many do not realize that he owned one of, if not the very first Specialty Coffee store in Canada, the Java Nut and Coffee Shop in Hamilton, Ontario. He played an integral role in the formation of The Coffee Development Group, the predecessor to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, America's largest coffee association. Ted Lingle, executive director of the SCAA, wrote about Stuart in an early publication of that association calling Stuart a "Coffee guru." An apt name for a man who explained the coffee shortages of the 1970's to the American public on Good Morning America, debated consumer advocates in defense of higher coffee costs when they were calling for boycotts and over his lifetime, published hundreds of industry articles. He was an exceptional speaker and gave freely, his time and knowledge whenever called upon by his peers. His efforts garnered him many accolades and awards including: The Stuart Daw award - An award created and presented in his honor by the Canadian Automatic Merchandising Association. Hall of Fame award - NBPA Allied Member of the year award - NAMA He was the key figure in and helped to write a business case study that is still in use at The University of Western Ontario. The Professor who co-authored the case sent a note to Stuart recently, here is an excerpt: I have been meaning to write this epistle to you regarding my teaching of the Stuart Daw case. I thought you might like to have some feedback regarding how people have responded to it over the years. Everyone who writes cases for business education hopes to write a case that is enduring and captivating. There are classics in the field. Most of them are relatively short and yet address profound issues and insights that continue to vex managers year after year. I think the case that you helped me write is in that category. I have used the case in almost every course that I have taught since the case was developed. That covers about 18 years. You saw the issue as one of Transactional pricing. I saw the case as an example of what we called Activity Based Costing. I think both ideas apply, but the costing perspective was consistent with curriculum issues at least in the area of management accounting. I do want to thank you for the chance to have written this case and had the opportunity to use it all over the world. I really do appreciate the times that you came to the class and talked to the students about the business and about this particular situation. I recall the first time you came to Ivey and addressed the MBA program. We were teaching a case called South American Coffee. After you read the case, you looked at me and said "That's Folgers." Your address to the class that day was marvelous as it let them see the nature of the business. Over the years I have had the chance to meet many people and I have told them your story. I had the pleasure in one of the MBA sections to have a young lady who came up to me at the end of the year and told me that she actually had met you. Her father Lawrence Hunt was working in the coffee business in Sudbury. I had gone to high school with her father. In subsequent years, I have had students come up to me with copies of your articles from Google, as they put in your name and got the articles that you had written I think this is one of those cases that has an enduring quality to it. It is filled with critical lessons for managers far beyond the mere accounting issues. I think that is why it is so good. Once again, thank you for the time you gave to have this case written and used. I think you have given a great gift to management education. I certainly have never written a more popular or well crafted case. Beyond business Stuart had many interests. As a younger man he was drawn to sport, and was quite successful in the sport of curling. He had a deep passion for philosophy and fully immersed himself in the teachings of Ayn Rand. He was a founding partner of the Ayn Rand Institute. His dream to see her ideas gain popular appeal has come true as with the economic turmoil and tighter controls of today's society, sales of her books have reached all time highs more than 50 years after their original publication. In later years he took to Ballroom Dancing, Golfing and Public Speaking. As usual, he took to these activities with great gusto and was duly rewarded. His biggest highlights in these activities would be two hole-in-ones on his home course, Seminole Lake estates Country Club, and his many trophies at the local and district level as a speaker with Toastmaster's, a public speaking organization. Stuart married Joyce Hills in 1948 and together they had 5 children, Wendy, Sandy, Lori, Kevin and Ginny. In 1977 he entered his second marriage with Anne Saari who brought two daughters into Stuart's family, Barb and Brenda. Stuart leaves behind 7, beautiful grandchildren, Justin, Lyndsay, Ian, Mark, Chelsea, Carlie and Jesse. He will be remembered as a son, brother, father, grandfather, mentor, teacher, icon, entrepreneur and friend by the many whose lives he has touched. Services will be held for Stuart at Reese Funeral Home 6767 Seminole Blvd, Seminole, Fl 33772 Saturday, February 13th at 4pm.